Dandelions
by Only Secret
Summary: They were flowers...Dandelions...they are proud to be that. Because Dandelions were Kunoichi.


Disclaimer: I wish I own them. -sighs wistfully-

A/N: Okay, this is the chapter, which I've been talking about. I would love to dedicate this chapter to **_Safire Flame_**, **_Ultimate Kai Luva_**and _**Wildcatt**_ ; for being the best friends a girl can ever ask for. It's going to be hard to learn to live without you guys just an arm length or a yell away (although we're still just a phone-call/email. away). I want to thank you guys for encouraging me to write and beta-ing my work on whim. And definitely thanks for putting up with me on a sugar-high...(I've just been reminded how scary/crazy I can get...just a couple of days back...I'm sure **_UKL_** knows what I'm talking about). I'll miss going...I mean dragging (as _**Safire Flame**_ puts it)...you to Starbucks with me (until I come back, of course) and being locked outside the examination hall just before the exam (the horrors of that day). I'm going to miss going crazy over Neji and Sasuke with you girls (especially you, _**Wildcatt**_. So you better come over in the holidays so we can watch the anime and sigh over them...continue reading my fics too. And special thanks for you, at helping me figure out Ino's flower.) So until I see you three again, try to keep up with your works and best luck (not that any of you need it...but I'll just say it anyways).

Anyways, enough of the emotional babbling...of with the fic which _sweetmaiden _had inspired me to write.

**Dandelions**

Sometimes, Ino thought, really believed, that life would be easier had it all been about flowers in the garden.

Because then, it would be easier to explain why life was unfair. It would be easier to explain why something just was and something just wasn't. (Leaves were more important and valuable to the plant; but they weren't the reason people visit a florist.)

Some flowers were more beautiful than others. (Like red roses. Colors so rich that the blood which soaked a kunoichi's hands was pale in comparison) That was the way nature worked. Some flowers were bigger, brighter, sweeter.

And had they not been who they were…had they not been kunoichi (girls, always girls because they all live in a beautiful ideal), Ino thought, she knew, they would be the most beautiful blossoms. Queens amongst blossoms. (God was a gardener; and they were his best creation.)

Together, they would all be Cosmos. It was harmonious. Standing well with all flowers. (_'If you cannot act like a normal woman when you are in enemy's territory; you will have trouble spying.'_) Its fleeting colors were a girl's heart. And that was what they were- forever girls. No women can live in their world, for only girls could do what kunoichi do.

Alone, Tsunade-sama would be a Sunflower. She would be on top of the Hokage building, looking down on her court. Because that was the only place that would fit her majestic nature. Lovely, proud and splendid. She would stand tall and huge, facing the sun- friend and foe embodied in that burning globe. And trailing behind her would be days and years of glorious history. Legends and Myths surrounded her as she ruled her village.

Anko-senpai with her mischievous smirks and grins would be a Tuberose- the flower was the true essence of kunoichi- a dangerous pleasure (seduction at its best). And Ino thought no one, not even Tsunade-sama, could fit this flower but Anko-senpai. Because she was the only one who could truly live the role of kunoichi (intoxication. Kunoichi was a slow poison, ensnaring all of their senses, making them alert and weary) and still enjoy the simplest things of life like red bean broth and dango.

If Tsunade-sama was a Sunflower, and Anko-senpai was a Tuberose, Kurenai-sensei would have to be a Clematis. The crawling beauty that wrapped one up in illustrious charms. The calm and cool calculating manner of Team 8's sensei was everything elegant and enthralling. Ino hadn't been too impressed by her teacher as a student in the Academy, but by the collected genjustu specialist's absolute grace. She'd wanted to be just like that. To be another truth of kunoichi; keeping her head when all loses theirs.

When she met Sakura, Ino couldn't really decide what flower Sakura would be, Despite her rival's pink locks and her namesake, Ino thought common cherry blossoms were just not enough for her friend. She was more than just a spiritual beauty. Sakura would be a Gillyflower, she'd decided one day when she found Sakura standing at the gates, waiting. Then she realized how she was always so faithful. No matter what. Sasuke had left, she remained faithful. Naruto had left. She remained faithful. Like a Gillyflower, everyone was magnificent to her (one way or another). And for their beauties, she laid faith in them. (A crazed innocence of a girl) Ino had realized that it was all too easy to draw strength from her faith. Too dangerously easy.

Only Tenten would be worthy of a Gladiola. Nothing could suit her better than the flower of the warrior. The weapon mistress emitted strength in all directions. The vibrant colors of the Gladiator's bloom, spoke as if for her successes (in the time she'd walk the earth- plentiful and glorious). Her deadly dance to the tunes of slashing and ripping- The strength and grace in her moves that even a geisha should be envious. Her famed accuracy- killing so easily that enemy piled like trophies in her wake. She was always the true warrior that made other flowers pale in comparison.

And Hinata would be a Zephyr Lily. A pure awaiting flower that was the epitome of deception. The soft spoken girl who, like a Zephyr Lily, drew no attention with its springy grass like leaves. Unnoticeable. Insignificant. Like weeds in the flower bed. Yet in the pouring rain, where all flowers bowed their heads to the abuse form the sky, Hinata would be the one standing, straight and blooming. It wasn't hard to see that the Hyuuga heiress was bidding her time just like the flower for the waiting. Because when she bloomed, no one could deny her beauty; no one could deny her strength.

She would think that she would be a Plum blossom. Because she wasn't anything too exotic nor anything too unprotected. Like Cherry Blossoms was to Spring and Cosmos to Fall: she would be the flower of the crisp Winter; blooming tall in the trees. Involved in the turbulent world, yet too far apart to be affected. Pure- because she was just a girl. Independent- because she needed no men (whether it is to look good or to be the best). High and unattainable- because she would settle for nothing but the best. That would be Ino Yamanaka.

That would be _them_.

Had they not been who they were, Ino would've thought they were all these. Beautiful. Exotic. Delicate. Sheltered flowers waiting for the right man to woo, to bring home, to love and cherish.

But they were not. They were girls behind infiltrations, espionages, assassinations. Game masters in the shadow. A deadly trap. The accentuating flowers (maybe Thoroughwort) in an arrangement that last till the end. (Always till the final moments.)

'_Flowers should fight for No.1, ne?'_

Ino could hear her younger self saying.

'_No, they shouldn't.'_ she could hear herself, the girl that she was today saying the answer Sakura never gave that day. _'They kill. We kill for No. 1.'_

Nothing Delicate. Nothing Dainty. Everything secretive and inconspicuous.

Like flowers on the street.

Because that was what they were. Dandelions, flowers in the wild, by the road, everywhere. Strong and unobtrusive; slowly killing the softer, sweeter blossoms; always focused and faithful to their goal- becoming No. 1. (A kunoichi's mission, anything less would be death.)

And in the end, when all things accomplished or failed, kunoichi vanished in a swoop of glory.

Just like Dandelions.

For they could be no more and no less than that.

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked it! Review please! I beg you! It was really hard work.

By the way...due to new circumstances...updates will be very very very irregular...I think...I'll try my best...I'm at a boarding school here...so things are a bit different.


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